The Devil In Me combines Saw with interactive horror. We played the fourth installment of the Dark Pictures anthology for you at gamescom 2022.
Guildford, Great Britain – On the way to the hotel of death. Supermassive Games’ The Devil In Me should give us cold sweats in November. We had the opportunity to play this horror game at gamescom 2022 and we tell you why the Saw series came to mind.
The Devil In Me: A lot of Saw – but the victims are on the alert
With The Devil In Me, Supermassive Games offers a new piece of The Dark Pictures anthology (a collection of games from the developer), with which the British want to secure a great chapter in the history of horror games. The Devil In Me is the fourth installment in the series, following Man of Medan, Little Hope and House of Ashes.
The concept behind the Dark Pictures anthology can be easily summed up as an “interactive horror movie”. Alone or in co-op, we control characters desperately left to their own devices, the choice of teenagers, soldiers or, in the case of the newcomer, a film crew, through a pre-outlined plot and try – according to our degree of sadism – to save our proteges or let them run to their doom without mercy,
The same is true in The Devil In Me: the game constantly confronts us with difficult choices, so that we hold all the strings of the fate of the characters. Plus, our reflexes influence what happens with the walking horror movie cliches that Supermassive puts right in front of us.
In terms of gameplay, quick-time events are still the bread and butter of the Dark Pictures anthology. So all it takes is hitting the wrong key or mindlessly grabbing the packet of chips for the hated high school quarterback to see the radishes from below – or the super cool skater girl we just desperately wanted to save. No chance !
The Devil In Me: Everything is in place for a successful conclusion to the Dark Pictures anthology
The Devil In Me should close out the first season of the Dark Pictures anthology and end on a high note with a healthy dose of fake blood. Everything screams slasher in the new game from the creators of Until Dawn. Supermassive indeed took inspiration from whoever might be America’s first serial killer and created a story around him that sits somewhere between Saw, The Grudge and any invasion movie. houses.
This is Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, real name Herman Mudgett. At the end of the 19th century, he lived and worked as a physician in Chicago. It is estimated that he murdered more than 30 people there. He did, however, gain a morbid cult status as a man who built an entire house for the sole purpose of torturing and killing his victims. Supermassive tackles this crime house myth and casts us as victims of Henry Howard Holmes or his alter ego.
The hook of the story mightn’t be simpler: a film crew of five wants to make a documentary regarding the serial killer, which is obviously only possible by personally living the full experience of the house. of the crime. An unknown patron quickly arranges a night at a replica of Worlds Fare’s famous death hotel and the playful horror trip is in place.
Supermassive was also inspired by the famous serial killer for its name. According to tradition, Henry Howard Holmes would have recognized in his confession to his accusers: “I was born with the devil in me” (I was born with the devil in me). He would therefore have always been a serial killer, the devil having already been at his side since his birth. A morbid statement, even for a serial killer. In his footsteps, we find as usual a cast of celebrities and consenting victims. We only know that Oscar-nominated actress Jessy Buckley is part of the cast.
Here is the full team of the damned from The Devil In Me:
- Charlie Lonnit: Founder of production company Lonnit Entertainment and driving force behind the horror documentary
- Kate Wilder: Host of the documentary regarding serial killer HH Holmes
- Mark Nestor : cameraman et ex de Kate
- Jamie Teargan: Lighting and Equipment Manager
- Erin Keenan: Trainee in the production company and Audi manager
The Devil In Me tackles slasher: Saw and The Shining served as models
With The Devil In Me, Supermassive Games is therefore once once more tackling a classic genre, but totally new for the anthology: the slasher. Big names like The Shining, Halloween and Saw served as models for the finale, reveals game director Tom Heaton. The game is intended to be narrow, oppressive and explicitly gross, with numerous traps, hidden rooms and other surprises awaiting the five heroes in the house of crime.
But The Devil In Me would also have changed the gameplay, regularly criticized since the first part. The roadmap: more interaction with the environment. Developer Supermassive promises puzzles, plenty of scope for object magnification, and an inventory system to give us players more influence over the survival of our proteges.
We haven’t yet been able to find out if the British have also come up with something new for the controversial real-time events. But the thing is, with each new game in the series, the gameplay has taken a step in the right direction – even if it’s quite small. For the October release, we’d like to see more focus on how Dark Pictures Anthology plays out. Because the story, the atmosphere and the graphics are, as usual, of a good level.
As fans of the series, we also really liked the Saw vibe of The Devil in Me. Traps upon traps, treacherous devices and an adversary that you never really know if it is real: with these horror substitutes, Supermassive Games is already boiling the blood in our ears. As usual, there are question marks over the gameplay loop: we’ll find out the real added value of the gameplay changes when it’s released in November. For us, the time of horror will therefore never come soon enough.
The Devil In Me sortira le 18 novembre 2022 sur PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One et PS4.
